UFO Sighting Report - USA

January 23rd 2007 : Southampton County, Virginia

Number of witnesses: 2
Number of objects: Either 1 or 3
Shape of objects: Round lights in shape of triangle.

Full Description of event/sighting: Hi. I understand this site 'serves' Canada, so I wasn't sure if you'd want any possible UFO sighting in the states or not. But, I figured what the hay--all you can do is tell me is you don't need my testimony--can't kill me and eat me, right? Right? ;o) lol

Anyway, this is something that I witnessed this past Tuesday, so I'm trying to get this all out while it's still fresh. I filed a report with NUFORC last night as well.

On Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at approximately 7:40p.m. I was driving SE on Sedley Road with my four year old son on my way home from a friends house when I spotted what I thought at first was a planet--possibly Venus or Mars--(I enjoy astronomy and such, but can hardly ever remember what is what exactly in the sky so far as the names of stars and planets and where they should be at, at any given time of the year.)

This object was to my left and looked to be a few miles away from me--(after checking out my map, I think that this object was most probably 2-3 miles away from my location when I first spotted it as I was driving.)

This object was looking for all the world like a planet--just far bigger than I was thinking a planet should look from earth--definitely larger than any planets I've seen before. But im no professional star gazer, so I figured what do I know? lol

The 'planet' was VERY bright, and a light orange color. Even though I thought it looked awful large for a planet, I still assumed it must be one since it was not twinkling like stars do.

I pointed the light out to my son, and proceeded to bore him with probably useless trivia about how to tell if a star is a star or if its a planet. This object was in my view the entire time I was driving-(except short periods when trees obscured it.)

A little over 2 miles up the road I had to make a left turn to head due east. I had started thinking there was definitely something weird looking about the light so once I turned, and saw no other cars were coming, I stopped in the road to have a safer look.

This was when I noticed the light was not a single light, but three lights--and it was moving in a diagonal direction towards me! I figured that it must be an airplane since it was moving, yet I thought to myself that it was weird for an airplane to have three large orange lights underneath it like that because for it to have been an airplane the two front lights would have had to have been on the end of each wing, and the third rear one on the tail, and all would have had to have been underneath the object.

These lights all looked to be the same distance apart and were very big looking lights, all large, all the same light orange color, no pulsing, or color changing, and they were set in a triangle pattern. They didn't appear to be landing lights, and I wanted to mention that the plane was not coming from, or going towards the direction of the closest airport here, so I'm sure it wasn't landing or taking off.

I made no unusual note of speed, or movement--(it appeared to move slowly, but I wouldn't say notably slow, nor did I see any unusual movements that defy conventional aircraft movements.) I had my window rolled down, and I heard no sounds as if an airplane was passing overhead, but I never cut my van off, so I suppose it's possible there were some sounds.

This object appeared to be flying pretty low, yet was too high for me to make out any of the aircraft itself--I could only see the three lights. It's possible this may have been a normal, everyday aircraft, but I have to say that I've been driving for many years, and have been out lots of times at night, and I have seen many, many, airplanes, helicopters, and such in the night sky at varying distances. I've seen all kinds of colored lights on aircraft's as they go along up there, sometimes steady, sometimes blinking and blipping around.

More than a few of them have given me pause, but I always realize very quickly that it is in fact just an airplane, or some other form of 'normal' aircraft. You just--know when what you are seeing is normal, and when it is not, and this didn't look normal to me. I can't say as I've ever seen three big orange colored lights in that formation on the very bottom of an airplane like that before. Ever.

Another car ended up turning on the road behind me that I was stopped on, so I drove up to the next side road and turned on it to find a place to turn around and try to watch this thing some more.

I did this in about a one minute time period, losing sight of the object as I did so. As I was pulled into the dirt path I was using to turn around in, I stopped and searched out the object, finding it easily as it made its way in the same diagonal trek, but in front of me this time.

I sat there maybe 30 more seconds as it grew smaller in the distance, then drove home.

Thought I should mention that I submitted another report to the NUFORC about a year or two ago concerning a possible UFO sighting I had when I was younger back in the 80's in nearby Suffolk, Va. (I believe that was the last time I have seen anything 'unidentified' in the skies until Tuesday night, btw...lol)

The object I saw in the 80's was a solitary, huge, bright light, but was orange like the lights I saw last night. Might be nothing, but thought worth stating.

Don't know if this is helpful or not, but I looked up the exact coordinates of the location I was at when I saw all this on Tuesday.

My physical coordinates around the time I first laid eyes on the object were around LAT: -76.9872522354126 - LON: 36.74926092648688

After studying a map of the area, judging by the horizontal direction this object was flying in while it was coming towards me on Black Creek Rd when I realized first this thing was three lights, I believe the craft was coming from the vicinity of the following coordinates; LAT: -76.96995735168457 - LON: 36.75394593241057

I have done a drawing representing the best I could what I saw the other night on a paint program on my computer, as well as found a map detailing exactly where I was while seeing this object. If your interested in having them, feel free :o)

I put my phone number down here on your contact form, but unless you feel the need, I wasn't officially requesting for anyone to investigate this. Just wanted to impress how sincere I am and am not afraid to speak with someone if anyone feels its necessary.

Thank you for your time and for reading my long narrative of what I'm sure is probably the millionth possible UFO sighting report for you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask :o) Take care and God bless!

Additional Information:

Awwww, bless your heart--thank you for the kind compliments! Made my day! :o)

I'm sending along my sorry little attempt at trying to draw what I saw--hey, none can say I don't at least try though, right?

The file (SouthamptonVirginia2) I thought was right darn close to what I saw, though...(in other words, not too shabby, eh? I tried to make it so that it looked similar to the way it did as I was looking up at it from the window of my van. The color is as close as I could remember, although I do believe it might have been a shade or two darker.

The file (SouthamptonVirginia1) is simply just where I tried to give an accurate impression of how large this light was by comparing it to the North Star--(of course my little north star there is by no means meant to be accurate in size or anything. Basically I'm trying to say that if the north star is 'this' big, then the light I saw before I knew it was actually 3 lights was 'this' much bigger than it.

I tell you, its so hard to convey to someone the general idea of just how not normal something seen like this truly is, not to mention that you're not a nutball, while also trying to convey that your not overreacting either. I mean, I know I've had friends who have told me about something strange they might have seen in the sky before, and at the risk of sounding like a total hypocrite, usually the first thing I'm thinking is A)Probably what they saw was something 'normal' like a star, planet, satellite, plane, etc., and they probably just mistook it for something it wasn't, and B) Has this person been smoking crack today by any chance? LOL, joking, of course...lol

But yes, I think it really is hard to make the majority of people understand that you are not an idiot, and that you are not a crack head, and that you wouldn't even be telling anyone about this for no reason, know what I mean?

Anyway, I'm sorry to babble on. The last file, (Map - SouthamptonVirginia3) just shows exactly where I was when I saw this thing.

Thanks again for your time, kindness, and bringing a smile to my face today! Have a great afternoon and I look forward to speaking with you soon!

The graphics and map of the area can also be viewed at: http://www.hbccufo.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1478

Thank you to the witness for the excellent report. I will be calling the witness.